Bengals cut Rashad Jeanty, place Tom Nelson on PUP list

Posted by NBC Sports on August 30, 2010, 12:27 PM EDT

Most of the names released early this week as teams get down to the 75-man roster limit will be unrecognizable. That’s not the case in Cincinnati.

Antonio Bryant was already thrown overboard, and now the team cut linebacker Rashad Jeanty, a valuable player for them over the last four years. Jeanty played in 63 games since 2006 since arriving from the CFL, starting 32 of them.

Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com calls Jeanty one of the toughest Bengals ever; he won the team’s Ed Block Courage award. Jeanty was trying to recover from a broken leg suffered in playoffs last year.

The Bengals also placed former Hard Knocks star safety Tom Nelson on the reserve/PUP list, which will keep him out for the first six weeks of the season.

Hopfully that seals the deal for Hebert to make the team. Invaluable on ST.

TheBengal13 says:Aug 30, 2010 12:35 PM

Bummer about Jeanty. Good guy, solid special teams player, pretty good backup LB.
Nelson should not be kept around. He returns punts and is a backup safety. They obviously don’t need him to return punts. The only reason that he was PUP’ed and not IRed or waived altogether was because of the injury to Gibril Wilson.

JoeSchmoe says:Aug 30, 2010 12:55 PM

Putting Nelson on PUP doesn’t hurt the team whatsoever. They can cut him once he comes off if there’s no need for him… otherwise, say someone gets hurt and he’s their best option, they don’t have to go resign him or find someone else should he latch on elsewhere… makes sense.
Jeanty will catch on somewhere once he heals. Classy dude, who put his family first always.

Rob Hib says:Aug 30, 2010 1:01 PM

That is interesting about Jeanty. Miami went hard after him in the offseason. I wonder if they try to sign him again.

You mean to tell me a team gave the Ed Block courage award to someone who actually deserved it?

WhoDeySood5 says:Aug 30, 2010 1:27 PM

sucks about Jeanty….he was a solid backer for us adn i hate to see him go….HOWEVER, this probably opens up a spot for either Skuta (Hybrid LB, ST, and FB now…) or for Muckelroy, who led Texas defense in tackles consecutive years as outside LB and then as middle LB…

steveinohio says:Aug 30, 2010 2:23 PM

Jeanty could see stripes again, once he heals. The move to PUP Nelson is a no brainer. He might heal and cutting him doesn’t make sence since he is a league min salary guy. Unlike Bryant.

Laxer37 says:Aug 30, 2010 3:14 PM

Jeanty is now free to sign with another team.
Preferably one that has won a playoff game in the last 20 years.

bigd7387 says:Aug 30, 2010 4:04 PM

@Laxer37. Nice to see a tool commenting so early.
As to Jeanty, Cinci had to get down and with his injury he still hasn’t passed a physical. I would almost bet that before the season is over Jeanty will be back in stripes but he has to get the leg healed. He already had a rod put in the leg and this second break was especially bad. Nelson is the one I don’t see playing for the Bengals again. Problably what will happen is that once Nelson is healed Cinci will offer a injury settlement or just release him. Nelson filled in for Crocker and Williams during the Jets game and got blown up several times and ended up getting hurt. The guy has desire it’s his ability that kills him, to small and not a tuff hitter.

bmuhler says:Aug 30, 2010 4:53 PM

How can he be put on the PUP list? I thought you had to be placed on the PUP list before training camp and once you came off and practiced one time you could not be put back on.

BuckeyeBengal says:Aug 30, 2010 6:35 PM

@bmuhler, I may be wrong, but I don’t think he practiced at all in training camp. He’s still eligible for PUP. He’s been rehabbing all offseason into the pre-season from last season’s injury. We couldn’t put Bryant on PUP, assuming we even would if we could, because he practiced the very first session of training camp.